I'm Swiss-born, served as a Marine jet attack aviator in the Korean and pre-Vietnam era. I received an MBA from UC Berkeley in 1962, with highest honors. I've held top management positions at GM, BMW, Ford, Chrysler and retired from GM as Vice Chairman in 2010 at age 78. My two successful books are "Guts: The Seven Laws of Business That Made Chrysler The World's Hottest Car Company" (Jonn Wiley+Son, 1998) and, more recently, "Car Guys vs. Bean Counters: The Battle For The Soul Of American Business" (Portfolio Press, 2010) Most current book "Icons and Idiots" (Portfolio Press, 2012). I'm a contributor for Road & Track Magazine along with CNBC, and appear with some frequency on "Larry Kudlow." I serve on numerous startup boards, am a Leigh Bureau professional lecturer and provide consulting services to a number of clients. I tend to have strong opinions which I share with enthusiasm ... some would say "to a fault." My personal motto is "Often wrong, but seldom in doubt." For more information, visit my website, boblutzsez.com.

New Mark Of Quality: 'Made In China'?

When we laugh at the quality of Chinese-made merchandise, as with Japan, the joke may soon turn out to be on us. (Image credit: Getty Images North America via @daylife)

The other day, I purchased a highly attractive set of patio dining furniture at a local big-box store. It featured six chairs, a table, large sun umbrella and the stand. All metal, the set featured an impact-resistant powder-coat finish, which will guarantee a rust-free future for many years. Since the entire set cost only $750, an astounding value, I didn’t have to look at the tiny, oval stickers: I knew it was Chinese.

The set came in two large boxes, with “some assembly required,” a phrase that, based on my life-long experience with American-made implements, garden carts, shelves, outdoor furniture, boat docks and kids’ swing-and-gym sets, always fills me with dread. I mentally braced myself for the usual miscounted or wrong-length screws, misaligned holes, skipped paint on the underside, unplated nuts and bolts doomed to corrosion as soon as installed, misprinted or entirely forgotten instruction sheet and all the myriad ills covered under “some assembly.” A one-hour job easily turns into a full afternoon as you travel to your local hardware store for the correct fasteners, the washers they forgot to put in the little plastic bag, as well as getting your power drill, with the correct bits, out of the garage and into remedial action. Much cursing of sloppy, who-cares labor attitudes occurs under one’s breath, as well as vitriolic discourses on a management that doesn’t check, doesn’t follow up, and, probably, couldn’t care less.

So, I was bracing myself for the Chinese equivalent.

The contents of “Box 1 of 2″ and “Box 2 of 2″ were beautifully packaged. Every chair leg, back, seat and armrest was wrapped in soft, fuzzy tape. The instruction booklet was large, the illustrations and step-by-step text were crystal clear. The hardware, beautifully plated, was delivered in a sealed, vacuum-formed plastic tray, with each screw, nut, bolt and washer size contained in their own little cubicles. A quick count assured me all were present, as were all the wrenches necessary for assembly, again in a separate space.

Once assembly began, I marveled at the precision of the bent tubing, the equal lengths, the rubber pads under all the feet. Holes of adjacent parts practically aligned themselves and the machined screws easily tightened into precisely pre-tapped holes. The whole set was assembled and in position in one hour, and it looks great. The last bit of assembly involved the placing of the little black plastic covers over the exposed hex bolt heads: it would hide their bright metal finish and protect them from unsightly corrosion. No cursing, here. Just gratitude, satisfaction, appreciation for a producer who clearly was focused on customer delight, who went the extra mile in packaging, tools, precision and ease of assembly.

Also, a feeling of dread crept in: these guys are good! Engineering, manufacturing, precision, quality and value were all above reproach. What happens when they start exporting cars and trucks from their rapidly-improving domestic producers? Remember after WW2 when we used to laugh at the “Made in Japan” label?

Meanwhile, as if to underscore the decline of “the greatest richest, most powerful country God ever put on this planet” (standard 4th of July speech), I completed the assembly of the set on the same day that the

Grand Prix was held on Belle Isle. It had to be stopped for two hours because the circuit’s pavement was breaking up, causing giant pot-holes to appear, their erstwhile contents flying through the air like giant lumps of black shrapnel. Finally, emergency repairs effected, the much-shortened event mercifully concluded.

How loudly would we laugh if we heard that some African city was putting on a Formula One race? “Do them guys even have roads, or are they gonna run it on dirt? Formula One ox carts? (Chortle, chortle!)”

I can’t think of one other First-World industrial nation that would stage a major race event on shabby, worn, cracked asphalt…but, hey, it’s a microcosm of America’s crumbling infrastructure. Nobody checked. Nobody worried. As usual, it was declared to be “good enough.”

We laugh at other countries at our own peril. It’s time to dump the hubris, look at where we are and what we have become, and get off our collective, smug, self-adoring butts.

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